Unlike when he approached the valley the first time Ryan moved with confidence along the road heading deeper into the mountain. That didn’t mean that he moved without care and kept up full awareness of his surroundings with the help of his sensory array. ‘Damn, really need a name for that.’ he thought to himself. During his travel from Otji the necessary focus to keep up and interpret what this suite of Skills was telling him had become less burdensome by the hour and Ryan now only strained slightly to hold the skills for a longer amount of time. The initial splitting headache fortunately was now a thing of the past.
Waking up next to Alexis had been a bit embarrassing. The girl had cuddled closer to him during the night and Ryan was well aware of the raging morning wood that had poked into the thigh she had draped over him. At least she had the grace to blush furiously when she awoke and realised the state he was in. Breakfast had been slightly awkward after that but no-one had commented on their cuddling session. Once he had sent his night-watch back to the Fortress by way of Portal he hadn’t wasted any time and jogged back along the road towards the Waterberg. Intermittently Shifting himself and Fury along stretches where he could cover a greater distance and then taking a risky shortcut by blindly Shifting to the edge of the Escarpment once he could clearly see it and then immediately Shifting down to the road again had greatly sped up their progress. Even cheating like that Ryan was amazed at the speed they had covered the distance. Moving the approximately ninety kilometres had taken just over two hours which, considering that it was under his own power, was incredible. Only keeping enough energy in reserve for a quick double Shift was slightly more risky than he felt comfortable with but they hadn’t spotted any major threats along the route a few days ago so he took the risk.
The morning was heating up nicely and Ryan just knew that the day would be a scorcher. As the pair of them headed down the slope into the valley the tiniest hint of wind that accompanied them on their ascent and had provided a modicum of relief from the building heat disappeared without a trace. It was just after ten in the morning and the stiflingly still air in the valley had him sweating buckets after a few short minutes. The area was quiet and the only sign of life Ryan’s own footsteps softly crunching the gravel in a measured rhythm. Fury was flitting ahead through the bush and even though he couldn’t see her the mental image of her panting through the bush with her tongue lolling out of her mouth reminded him of better times with a faithful companion. He quickly repressed the image and focused back on the task at hand. Cursorily scanning the campsite and the tented lodge in passing to confirm the areas where still vacant Ryan only slowed their approach when encroaching on the vicinity of the lodge hidden behind an outcropping of the valleys escarpment.
Unlike the other locations he hadn’t scouted the area surrounding it in as much detail as he preferred so now, given that he had more time than expected, he decided to be more thorough. Circling wide Ryan kept a careful eye on his surroundings. Signs of life where plentiful but most of the tracks were fairly small. He identified a couple of larger tracks, mostly herbivores, but these were more than a few days old. As he familiarised himself with their future neighbours he couldn’t help consider that they were indeed lucky, plenty of game and few potential aggressive threats, at least judging by the story the tracks told. From what he could see none of the denizens of the area had an unhealthy interest in the vacated buildings and he hadn’t spotted signs of major conflict the first time around.
As he circled to the north-west of the lodge he came upon a set of fresher tracks. The large spoor baffled him as he couldn’t even approximate which animal it could even loosely be based on. The unidentifiable paw-prints where one thing but the intermittent scratches on the ground where another. Fury couldn’t figure out the scent either, according to her it tasted of rot, iron and rust but Ryan failed to even pick up the slightest trace of scent even with his Enhanced Senses. Giving up on the mystery for the moment Ryan continued circling the site, unworried for the moment but paying particular attention to finding a set of outgoing tracks. Due to the terrain Ryan often didn’t have eyes on the lodge itself thus hadn’t spotted any occupant so far so it would be reassuring to know the strange beast had left the area.
They were straight out of luck. Ryan completed the circle without having found any outgoing tracks which meant that the strange creature was still in the area. Unless it could fly but then why would it have moved in along the ground. Debating with himself on the proper course of action for a moment Ryan decided to involve his brother in the process rather than to go it alone. He called William who promptly answered and once Ryan had recounted the basics of the issue William had Michelle link others into a group chat. In short order John, Mike, Miguel and Johannes joined the chat.
Ryan repeated his description of the sign for the benefit of the new participants but no-one had even the slightest idea what creature those tracks could belong to. The discussion on what to do next basically boiled down to the result Ryan should have expected in the first place. “So, Ryan will go in solo to figure out what we’re dealing with. Once he finds out and if it’s too much for him to handle we’ll reassess.” John’s summary exactly lining out the course of action Ryan had hoped to avoid. After his encounter with Panzer and his unconscionably stupid approach into an unknown situation in Otjiwarongo Ryan was hesitant to directly approach an unknown creature without back-up. Still, he had to acknowledge that he was the most likely to survive in such scenarios thanks to Dimensional Shift. Didn’t mean he had to like it. Checking on his Energy reserves Ryan confirmed that it had recovered to a more or less comfortable level of 4151/7796 despite his profligate expenditure earlier. Enough Energy to make a couple of Shifts, especially if he went without Fury. Which reasoning didn’t go down well with his Soulbond.
Eventually, after repeatedly explaining why it had to be that way the lioness consented to be left behind in a position of overwatch. Silently stalking through the thick bush and climbing up a rocky tower while mentally debating with her hadn’t been fun and Ryan grabbed his binoculars to scan the lodge once he had found a comfortable position on his chosen observation post. The pair spent more than an hour observing the site but couldn’t find any signs of life beyond some birds and a few smaller animals skulking around the gardens. The situation bore an uncomfortable resemblance to his experiences in Otji and Ryan had the nagging feeling he was dealing with another ambush predator. Ryan considered his approach and involved Fury in his internal debate before settling on the brazen strategy she had suggested.
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Instead of stealthily stalking into the area and possibly giving himself away, Fury suggested, he should Shift onto the roof of the barn and use Graviton Sphere to find the creature. Judging by its tracks it was plenty large and Ryan couldn’t miss it if it decided to move in response to the ruckus his arrival on the galvanised sheeting of the barn would raise. If it decided to lay low he could still try to find it before he Shifted back and tried the traditional approach. Either way, she argued, following her plan would greatly expedite the search. Her arguments made sense so Ryan resigned himself to playing bait. Silently he lamented the fact that they couldn’t send in his favourite sacrificial offerings due to the nature of the surroundings and the smaller size of the creature resulting in the very likely possibility that they would fail to spot an ambush on the poor things. ‘At least,’ he sent to Fury mostly to reassure himself, ‘it looks like it won’t be able to smash through the buildings.’
With that thought he Shifted to slightly above the roof of the barn. A clanging boom sounded as he dropped the few centimetres onto the bare sheet of galvanised zinc and Ryan crouched down, frantically scanning the area with all his senses pushed to the max. He failed to spot any movement but the subdued susurration that filled the area was ominous. Ryan couldn’t place the low bassy sound that he felt more than he heard until it started rising in both pitch and volume. With sudden clarity the few little signs of the creature assembled into a comprehensive picture as Ryan realised he was dealing with a porcupine. A large, angry porcupine judging from the racket its instinctive warning was causing.
Once Ryan realised that the sound originated from directly beneath him he immediately Shifted onto the roof of the main building nearby. It turned out that it was a wise move as moments later the roof of the shed was pierced like a thin sheet of paper by a flight of quills shooting towards the sky. Ryan doubted that he would have survived being pierced by quills that were nearly half a metre long and cold sweat broke out along his body. ‘That was way to close!’ he sent to Fury, ‘Your plan sucks.’ he added.
Two more flights of quills shredded through the roof before the angry rattle of the creature quieted down and Ryan barely dared to move a muscle He had nocked an arrow before he even Shifted onto the barn but, given what he had seen, doubted that a ranged duel with the porcupine which was still hidden inside would turn out in his favour. Ryan waited on the roof for a few minutes before a quiet susurration, different in tone, made him draw his bow and sight on the gaping opening of the gates which he distinctly remembered to have closed.
Slowly a beach-ball sized head covered in a dully shimmering layer of fine quills edge out of the opening. Except for the eyes the coat covered every exposed surface of the head. The moment Ryan Identified the head as belonging to a Level 23 Steel-spined Rodent he dropped a Hunter’s Mark on the beast and released the arrow he had aimed at the only vulnerable organ. A slight twitch caused the arrow to miss, mostly. Ryan was so focused on the shot that he followed the action as if it was happening in slow motion. ‘Bullet time.’ the irrelevant thought tangentially pinged on his awareness as he watched the razor sharp broad-head deflect of the quills surrounding the eye only to slice through the eye at an oblique angle and deflect on the opposing ridge of quills and ping away. Ocular matter oozed out of the slit and the pained screech of the animal nearly burst Ryan’s ear-drums. With a thought Ryan shifted away as he saw the rapidly retreating head. And just in time as he heard the staccato impact of numerous quills impacting the building he had just vacated.
His new vantage point with direct view into the barn from flat along the ground allowed him to follow what happened next. With another flick of its tail the beast shot another flight of quills at his previous location, then another just before it charged backwards into the direction of his former location and out of sight. A dull smack and the screeching of metal on metal told him it had impacted the building and was doing its absolute best to impale the source of its pain. Ryan didn’t hesitate and Shifted again. As far into the barn as he could see. It was far enough, he had shifted out of line of sight of the beast judging by its ongoing attempt to skewer the building that Ryan could only see the corner of as he turned around. Slowly he edged sideways with his bow fully drawn, aiming for another chance to perforate the porcupine’s head or at least blind the beast.
The moment he had a bead on the small and rapidly moving target of the creatures other eye he released the arrow on its rapid flight. Knowing what was going to follow he Shifted again immediately. The now familiar staccato of quills impacting sounded moments after he re-oriented himself and was shortly followed by the sustained rattle of the porcupine charging backwards defensively. Ryan didn’t spare a moment to turn around and see what was happening as he sprinted around the corner of the building he had Shifted and moving out of line of sight. The moment he was hidden from view he started climbing to the roof of his last point of ambush.
He had chosen this site with care. Once he crested the ridge of the gabled roof it would afford him direct line of sight to the barn and their position of overwatch. Thanks to his Hunter’s Mark he knew that the animal, even if it was now dead silent, had stayed at the barn for the moment. His chosen location would allow him to release another shot and immediately vacate the area afterwards. Ryan had checked his Energy level in the barn and was now on his second to last Shift so if he failed to kill his opponent with the next shot it was better to make himself scarce for the time being. The sounds from the barn quietened down and Ryan forced his trembling body to still as he carefully ascended the slope of the roof. Flush with adrenaline it took conscious effort to reign himself in and achieve the necessary level of calm needed for a good shot. The moment Ryan’s head appeared above the ridge he realised that he had underestimated his opponent. The animal was already spinning around to present its tail when he laid eyes on it and with a very loud ‘Shit’ Ryan Shifted to escape without having a chance to release a shot.